Discipline is patient.

“Only those who have the patience to do things perfectly,” Friedrich Schiller said, “will acquire the skills to do difficult things easily.” 

You have to show up day in and day out. You have to keep showing up and doing the work necessary even when results are small or unseen. 

When you feel as if you’re not making the slightest bit of difference. 

And when you everything in you says, “Give up.”

Discipline knows that reward comes to those who wait.  

To those who apply themselves to their craft with focus and determination over the long haul. 

There are zero overnight successes. Not in art. Not in music. Not in sports. And not in life. 

Behind every supposed overnight success is a lot of sweat, hard work, and patience. 

It may take years to reach your goal. 

And that’s ok. 

All that sweat and patience is building within you the character and discipline you need. It is shaping you into the person you need to be. It is making you worthy of your accomplishment. 

You wouldn’t rejoice if things came easy. You’d do what most people do with easy achievement—ignore it. 

The goals you're chasing are valuable and life giving because they are hard. Their difficulty is their magic. 

They are asking for the drive, determination, and patience required. In short, they are demanding discipline. 

Don’t quit when things get hard. 

Don’t give up because it’s not easy. 

Don’t move on to something new instead of sticking it out and seeing it through. 

Be patient. 

Stay the course. 

Apply discipline and remain patient. 

Results will come. Just give it time. 
 

What You Focus On

Have you noticed that the more you focus on a problem or mistake the more you repeat it?

That’s because your focus determines your output. 

What you focus your energy on is what you’ll produce. 

In other words, your behavior follows your mindset.

If you’re focused on not doing a particular thing, chances are you’re setting the stage for it to happen again. And again. And again. 

While taking things seriously and holding the line is important, so is focusing on the right things. 

Don't waste time and energy dwelling on the negative. Focus intently on the positive instead. 

There is a positive side to every problem you encounter. Focus on it. 

It is always better to be for something positive, than against something negative. 

Discipline your mind to think in this way. Discipline it to focus in the right direction. 

Change your thinking, and you’ll change your life. But as with everything else, that’s going to require discipline. 

Fear Is A Poor Motivator

Fear works. You can use it to get things done and to exert control over yourself and others. 

That doesn’t mean it’s the best or most effective strategy. 

You could walk from New York to LA, but there are more efficient and effective modes of transportation.

Fear based obedience is like walking. It might get you there, but it’s a giant waste of energy and a poor motivator. 

If you’re using fear as your primary motive, here are three effects you should see: 

1. Your motivation will lose power over time. Fear is an intense and draining emotion. You can only deal with it for so long. It eventually becomes exhausting. Slowly, you become too tired to care and indifferent to what happens. Fear based motivation is short-lived.

2. Admitting, learning and moving on from mistakes will be more difficult. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to do things wrong. That’s life. If you’re motivated by fear, you’ll have difficulty owning up to it when you do. You’ll fear reprisal and punishment for not living up to the standard. You’ll be tempted to rationalize and shift blame. 

3. You’ll have trouble enduring hardships. You’ll think that life is unfair and that you’re owed something better when difficulty comes. In other words, despair and bitterness will be the result of suffering if your motivation is fear based. 

Fear is a wimpy motivator. It’s not strong enough to carry you through. Fear might get you moving, but you’re going to need something more to reach the finish line. 

What’s that something more? 

Grace.  

Everything you have and everything you are is a result of grace. You don’t deserve it. It is a gift from God. 

When understood, this should become the greatest and most sustaining motivator in life. 

It is the complete opposite of fear. 

Grace’s becomes a stronger motivator over time. The more you realize and understand that everything in your life is a gift the more grateful you become. The more grateful you are, the more motivated you are to honor that gift with your life. 

Grace provides ground for you to own up to your mistakes without fear. If you're saved by grace, through faith, and everything in your life is because of God’s mercy, then you have nothing to fear from admitting your weakness. You’ll be more likely to share your struggles, learn from, and conquer them. 

Grace will carry you through the hard times. It will be the stone your feet find beneath the quick sand and troubles of this life. It will hold you up and keep you from drowning in despair. If God owns everything, then you are a steward. How you steward things displays your gratitude to God. 

Why do you workout?

Deep down in your bones, you know that exercise, or working out is important to your long-term health. You've known this since childhood. 

How often do you pause to think beyond the vague promise of a healthier life? How often do you consider a deeper reason for our sweat and tears? 

Working out is hard. It’s uncomfortable. It often hurts. And it pushes you to the breaking point on a regular basis. All that pain and all that suffering have to be about more than the promise of avoiding sickness. There’s no guarantee your time in the gym will help you avoid a cold or prevent real systemic disease from darkening your door. That promise can’t be made. 

So why put yourself through all that difficulty and pain, if there isn’t a guarantee? 

Because working out is about far more than empty promises and disease prevention. It’s about preparation. Preparation for future challenges of both a physical and mental nature. 

Running and lifting get your body ready for the next physical task. Be it a competition or a fight. It disciplines your body by exposing it to a milder form of pain today to prepare it for far greater pain at some later date. 

Showing up every day builds the discipline and mental toughness you need to conquer challenges that take place in a different arena as well. If you’ve been getting under the bar and placing yourself in uncomfortable situations for months and months, you’ll be less uncomfortable and stressed by life’s trials. You’ll have the mental resolve to power through and finish no matter how hard things get.

Workouts become training sessions in this new light. Each workout takes on a new meaning and purpose and either moves you closer to your goal or farther from it. 

Make each time you walk in the gym the training ground for life’s next great adventure. Look at all that sweat, time and pain as your best friend. Because that’s exactly what discipline is. 
 

Quick, I Need More Time Stat!

We are almost to the weekend and if you are anything like me, you're looking at your "to do" list and feeling like you just don't have enough time in the day. Can I get an amen on that one? Someone needs to invent a time machine, like yesterday!!

You might have missed it while your nose was to grind stone but someone finally figured it out for us and it could change everything about how we get things done.

It's called an alarm clock.

Before you get mad and leave, which can be oh so tempting when someone shares news you don't want to hear, hear me out. I promise it'll be worth it. Hey if its not, you can delete this tab. So win, win?

Think about it, what is one sure fire way to create more time in your schedule to get things done? If you said, getting up earlier you're exactly right.

We all know this, but how many of us take action on it?

We love our sleep like a fat kid loves sugar donuts and the thought of sacrificing any of it is painful. Most of that pain however comes from regret. The regret that comes from knowing that if we got up earlier we could change our lives.

I'm not going to waste your time making a case for why we all could benefit from getting up earlier. I'm just going to assume you agree with me and want to make some changes to your life. Isn't that why you’re here? 

So you want to get up earlier? Today I've got one ultra simple way for you to add one hour to your day in just one week with minimal suffering. We've all tried, and failed, to get up earlier through the years. We do really good for a few days, ok maybe we do good for like 2 days and give up, but for whatever reason we can't make the change.

So how do you make it stick this time?

Set multiple alarms on your smart phone.  

The introduction of technology into our lives has many benefits, especially in helping us create habits. No other device has been more impactful on us than the "smart" phone, specifically the iPhone. That little device in your pocket has enormous power and potential to help you change your life.

Sit down for one minute and set five alarms for the upcoming week, one for each day. Each day you will set the alarm for 15 mins earlier than the day before. You'll hardly notice getting up 15 mins earlier.

Your alarms should look like this:

Now that your all set. Don't give it another thought until next Friday when you set your alarms for the following week. If you want to keep rolling back the clock feel free to do so, or you can simply enjoy having an extra hour each day next week.